11:06 p.m. - 2006-10-26
smart guy
I usually leave politics to the social justice blog. I did update it a little while ago...but I know, I've been lazy there. I want this blog to be more lighthearted, for whatever reason. Maybe it will take a more confessional/serious/introspective tone for a while. Maybe not. In any case, I wanted to say this:
I really, REALLY hope Barack Obama runs for president. He has a book out called The Audacity of Hope (I think.) I want to read it. Here is an excerpt I read that I really like:
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"I don't want to go through the back," I told the staffer driving me. "Tell them we're coming through the front." We turned into the library parking lot and saw seven or eight protesters gathered along a fence: several older women and what looked to be a family�a man and woman with two young children. I got out of the car, walked up to the group, and introduced myself. The man shook my hand hesitantly and told me his name. He looked to be about my age, in jeans, a plaid shirt, and a St. Louis Cardinals cap. His wife shook my hand as well, but the older women kept their distance. The children, maybe 9 or 10 years old, stared at me with undisguised curiosity.
"You folks want to come inside?" I asked.
"No, thank you," the man said. He handed me a pamphlet. "Mr. Obama, I want you to know that I agree with a lot of what you have to say." "I appreciate that."
"And I know you're a Christian, with a family of your own."
"That's true."
"So how can you support murdering babies?"
I told him I understood his position but had to disagree with it. I explained my belief that few women made the decision to terminate a pregnancy casually; that any pregnant woman felt the full force of the moral issues involved and wrestled with her conscience when making that decision; that I feared a ban on abortion would force women to seek unsafe abortions, as they had once done in this country. I suggested that perhaps we could agree on ways to reduce the number of women who felt the need to have abortions in the first place.
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I really strongly agree with that last sentence. I think that is the essence of the whole argument and probably the most intelligent way to look at the problem.
